Becoming a "winning organization" when one currently is an "ugly ducking" can be a difficult and strenuous task. BAT Niemeyer in the Netherlands succeeded in making such a transformation over the course of four years. Action learning was used, among other methods, to steer part of this transformation, in which employee involvement was heavily emphasized. In the following article, it is described how action learning was used by the company and what resulted from this. Some of the difficulties involved in the process are also set out. Some of the "lessons learned" for action learning development are briefly discussed as well. Although action learning was not used in all of the firm's initiatives to realize the above mentioned transformation, we think these lessons can be drawn nevertheless. (Contains 7 notes.)